High PS4 Sales May Be Due To Sony Targeting Wii Owners Who Skipped PS3 And Xbox 360

Sony admits it was targeting Wii owners who may have skipped the Xbox 360 and PS3 when it designed the PS4.
Courtesy/Sony

Look out, Nintendo. Sony has been gunning for the Wii U’s core demographics of players.

During the Develop Conference in Brighton, U.K., a top Sony Corp. (NYSE:SNE) executive said that the PlayStation 4 was designed to attract owners of the Wii U, made by Nintendo Co. Ltd. (TYO: 7974), who skipped the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

"Our big opportunity is to welcome back an audience much earlier in the lifecycle that possibly bought into the Wii previously," Computer Entertainment President and Group CEO Andrew House House told Eurogamer.

"Whether it's based on this is a really good all-round entertainment device for a family in addition to having great games, our consumer data suggests some of those people are already coming in now and that's what's contributing to the really great sales we've had."

House added that Sony kept this goal in mind when deciding if the company should remaster and release some of the previous-generation PlayStation 3’s popular games like “The Last of Us” and “Grand Theft Auto 5.” House believes the titles will sell because many PS4 owners never played the games on a PS3.

"I hesitate to say this because I know committed gamers may roll their eyes about it, but there's an opportunity with some of the remastering or re-imagining from PS3 franchises that will potentially find an audience that hasn't played them in the previous generation because they skipped that generation," House said. "We're starting to see signs of that.”

House feels that even though these games aren’t technically new content, players will still buy old games because they’re quality titles.

"I've always looked with envy at the movie industry about what a great job they're able to do with taking content and making it work," he said. "Disney is the best example of this, right, of taking classic content and reintroducing it to audiences over time.”

As this process continues, House hopes to appeal to the high number of gamers who have been playing all their lives.

"We as an industry haven't done that historically. We're only just getting into our stride with people who now have been playing for 10, 20 years, who have a nostalgia factor, who want to see those franchises come back and be reinvented.”

Since the PlayStation 4’s launch last November, the console has sold more than 9 million units, beating out its competitor, Microsoft’s Xbox One.

"I look back on it and I struggle to see how it could have gone any better from most perspectives," House said.

Why does he believe the PS4 is doing so well?

"I look back on it and think we executed several things really well that I'm fairly proud of -- one was being consistent in our message, being focused on delivering for the game first and foremost, but not losing sight of the opportunity to turn a console into a broader entertainment device as well, which is important.”